1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed generally toward a shopper's organizer and more particularly pertains to an apparatus for containing, organizing, and displaying store coupons for selection purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Producers of various products sold in supermarkets and drug stores offer discount coupons to consumers as an incentive to buy their products. Coupons may reach the consumer through various means. Such means may include newspaper advertisements, direct mail, and dispensers attached to store shelves. Since the coupons offer considerable savings, shoppers typically want to use several coupons in a single shopping trip. In order to do this, the shopper needs some way to organize and store the coupons in a manner which makes them easily available during the shopping process.
Coupons are generally redeemable only for a particular item specified on the coupon. Because of this, the shopper must present the coupon at the point of purchase. In some modern supermarkets and pharmacies, universal price code labels on store goods and on coupons are scanned to ensure that the particular item and coupon match. If the specified item was not purchased then no discount is credited. Thus, it is important that the shopper be cognizant of which coupons are available for shopping. Preferably, the shopper would have a system for easily flipping through the coupons on hand in order to plan the shopping trip and to later match the coupon to a selected purchase. A system for easily flipping through coupons in an organized manner would also aid the shopper in the task of sorting through and presenting the correct coupon to the check-out clerk.
Coupons vary in size; however, a typical coupon measures approximately five and one-half inches by two and one-half inches. While a small number of coupons may fit into a pocket or purse type wallet, once the number of coupons reaches fifteen or more such an arrangement tends to become inconvenient and cumbersome. This is due to the difficulty of keeping the coupons organized and retrievable in such an arrangement. Since the coupons are not easily visible in a wallet of that type, it is difficult for the shopper to stay aware of which coupons are available. Further, constantly folding the coupons in a billfold type wallet tends to damage them and may render them unacceptable for redemption.
The use of organizers of various types is known in the prior art. Coupon wallet pouches designed specifically for the task of carrying coupons are available with pre-organized sections (e.g. dairy, cereal, produce, etc.). There are drawbacks to such wallet pouches. For example, the organization compartments are often fixed in place so they are not easily changed to a system which may better suit the needs of the shopper (e.g., following the floor layout of a particular store or alphabetizing by category or brand name). Also, the shopper's risk of mentally losing track of a particular coupon is increased because many coupons are accumulated together in one compartment. Unfortunately, there is also a risk that the shopper may lose the entire coupon wallet pouch or forget to bring it on the shopping trip because the pouch is small. A disadvantage of the pouch is that it must be held in the shopper's hands in order to retrieve the coupons. The typical shopper would have to frequently manipulate the pouch, which could present problems when there may also be the need to contend with a shopping list, a hand-held calculator, and perhaps young children or even infants.
A system which attaches to a shopping cart has certain advantages over the coupon wallet pouch since it frees the shopper's hands and is unlikely to be lost while shopping. Various apparatuses for organizing coupons which attach to shopping carts are known in the prior art, but none provides a very fast, convenient system for retrieving coupons and some are quite cumbersome to transport when not attached. U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,318 to Dutka discloses a shopping organizer which attaches to a shopping cart. The Dutka apparatus is a receptacle for storing coupons, having pleated accordion-like side walls and a plurality of dividers in a fashion similar to portable filing folders for papers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,567 to Sawyer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,901 to Reitenour also disclose apparatus having a pleated accordion style storage compartment for coupons. Unfortunately, in each of the above disclosures, the coupons are bundled together in general category compartments and thus it may be difficult to access one particular coupon quickly. Also, an apparatus having accordion type side walls must expand horizontally to accommodate coupons and thus may become unwieldy if loaded with a large number of coupons.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,402 to Ferri and U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,215 to Gregoire set forth coupon containers securable to a shopping cart and having a hinged lid storage box for coupons. Access speed is limited because, as in the above described cases, all coupons must be grouped in a particular compartment with other coupons having similar characteristics. Further the apparatus capacity is expanded by adding additional box containers, which may tend to make the apparatus difficult to carry to the store.
Modern supermarkets are greatly concerned with traffic flow through the store. Considerable effort has been expended in searching for techniques to "direct traffic" efficiently through the shopping area with efficiency while avoiding congestion in any one area. This is why aisles typically have a mix of high and low traffic items (i.e. items considered staples with items that are not typically bought on every shopping trip). Some stores, such as military exchanges, paint arrows on the floor to route shopper traffic through the store. Thus, a coupon organizer that allows the consumer to load the device according to store layout would aid the store and increase the shopper's efficiency in matching coupons to purchases.
It would be further useful to provide such an apparatus with a calculating device so that the shopper could keep a running tally of costs and compare prices of discounted items to non-discounted items. An apparatus having all the advantages described above without the disadvantages of the prior art would be an advancement of the art.